Super Bowl LVIII features two elite linebacker groups. Does that challenge the Eagles’ valuation of the position?

LAS VEGAS — During his tenure as an Eagles linebackers coach, Ken Flajole sometimes would embark on the exercise in futility that was scouting first-round prospects at his position.

He would do his “due diligence” on the players expected to go before the Eagles picked in his five-year stretch with the team from 2016 to 2020. Before too long, Flajole also realized the reports on prospects expected to go in the first few rounds probably wouldn’t materialize into them joining his group, either.

“You kind of get a sense for that as you go along,” said Flajole, now coaching outside linebackers for the Kansas City Chiefs. “But I don’t fault those decisions at all. If you don’t have a defensive front or an offensive line, then it’s hard. You can put anybody behind center that you want, but if he’s getting sacked or he’s getting pressured, they become ineffective.”

Between the group Flajole helps coach and the San Francisco 49ers’ duo of Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw, Super Bowl LVIII will feature two of the league’s best linebacking corps. It’s a position some teams, including the Eagles, don’t value as highly but one that has seen its importance grow as San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan’s influence on the league leads more teams toward attacking the middle of the field.

“The way that they run their offensive scheme and how people are copying them, you have to have linebackers that can run,” Greenlaw said. “Because a lot of the stuff they do is perimeter stuff, and also a lot of the stuff they do they want to cut it back. So you have to be able to run, and then in the boot game, the screen game, you have to be athletic enough to go pick up a crossing route or go pick up an athletic back. … You have to have a versatile linebacker that can kind of do a little bit of everything.”

» READ MORE: Deebo Samuel doesn’t view Eagles-49ers as a rivalry: ‘I consider rivalries close games’

Against the 49ers in Week 13, the Eagles’ overmatched linebacking corps and the team-building philosophy that made it that way was laid bare.

The Eagles’ middle-field defense struggled throughout the season as injuries left them rotating midseason additions into an already undermanned group. General manager Howie Roseman’s prioritization of the defensive line in the draft and free agency at the expense of those playing behind it has created fluctuant play from the linebacking corps during his tenure.

Last year’s tandem of T.J. Edwards and Kyzir White excelled, but both players signed elsewhere in free agency after the team’s run to Super Bowl LVII. This season’s group, with Nicholas Morrow and Zach Cunningham as the primary starters once Nakobe Dean suffered a season-ending foot injury, struggled.

“We’ve had a long history of success here building the team a certain way,” Roseman said last month. “I think maybe there are some preconceived notions that, at the linebacker position, that we don’t care who we play at linebacker. Again, our two Super Bowl teams over the last six years, the linebacker play was good from those guys.

“I think if anything, it’s my belief in the players that we have. The young players that we have. I have a lot of belief, and I know [coach Nick Sirianni] does, as well, in Nakobe Dean. I believe in the player. I believe in the person.”

» READ MORE: Eagles’ Howie Roseman defends his team-building philosophy at linebacker and has belief in Nakobe Dean

In the 42-19 loss to the Niners, the loss that sent the Eagles into a tailspin down the final stretch of the season, the defense gave up 213 yards after catch, according to Pro Football Focus. Morrow, who signed with the team last offseason, gave up 175 receiving yards in the game.

Greenlaw has plenty of experience going against Shanahan’s scheme in training camp, and said Shanahan will constantly test the middle of the field to find matchup advantages for wide receiver Deebo Samuel, running back Christian McCaffrey, or tight end George Kittle. Against the Eagles, Samuel and McCaffrey each surpassed 100 yards from scrimmage and combined for four touchdowns.

“When Kyle is going against other linebackers that aren’t as athletic or fast, you can tell that he’s going to try to leave a mark,” Greenlaw said. “If he finds someone he feels like we’ll have a better matchup against with Christian, which is a lot of people, he’s good at utilizing it and taking advantage of that.”

San Francisco linebackers coach Johnny Holland, a former NFL linebacker himself, said it’s an annual relief when training camp is over and his group can stop battling against the misdirection and isolation Shanahan throws at them. When he watches an opposing linebacker group on tape during the season, it doesn’t take long too determine if Shanahan will put them under a microscope.

“Ah, man, we can’t wait until the regular season starts,” Holland said. “He’s a genius. He knows how to get us in bad positions. The thing that I’ve learned about Kyle, too, is he knows defense inside out. He knows it better than we know it sometimes. He knows all the secrets.

“I know when linebackers are going to get in trouble. You see them doing stuff on film and you’re like, ‘Oh no, Kyle is going to get him.’ ”

» READ MORE: Eagles’ overmatched linebackers exploited by the 49ers for the Birds’ worst defensive showing since 2021

When John Lynch took over as general manager of the San Francisco 49ers in 2017 and hired Shanahan, the vision of the defense began taking shape with the linebacker group at the center of things — literally and figuratively.

Jets coach Robert Saleh, the Niners’ defensive coordinator at the time, ran a scheme that put nearly as much importance on the linebackers as it did on the defensive linemen in front of them, which informed Lynch’s prioritization of the position.

“When we were all putting it together, Robert Saleh’s background was as a linebackers coach,” Lynch said. “... We went after Reuben Foster, and then there was this guy who didn’t have dreadlocks back then named Fred Warner. He was a converted kind of hybrid, and now Fred’s the standard.”

Holland, who has been on the 49ers staff since 2017, said San Francisco’s evaluation of linebackers tends to be selective because of the level of responsibility they have in pass coverage as well as holding up against the run out of light boxes.

» READ MORE: Three personnel needs for rebuilding the Eagles defense under Vic Fangio

After hiring veteran defensive coordinator Vic Fangio two weeks ago, the Eagles may be looking for a similar type of player to fill out their linebacker room based on Fangio’s track record of using light boxes and match-zone coverages.

“We ask our linebackers to do a lot,” Holland said. “Just any kind of linebacker can’t play in our system. It’s guys who have the speed and the ability to get off of blocks and play in the box as well. We’ve identified some good players who could do it. Especially your two linebackers who can play against 11-personnel or 10-personnel that can stay on the field. Because teams can still run the ball, and you have to have bigger guys in the box who can get off of blocks and tackle.”

Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has a similar emphasis on the group, which is why Kansas City general manager Brett Veach has adjusted his prioritization of the position since leaving the Eagles organization with Andy Reid in 2013.

“That’s Steve’s quarterback,” Veach said. “It’s not just the linebacker, it’s so much more than that. I think the green dots are always going to have a special role in the defense, but in Steve’s defense, it’s even more important. Steve does so much with those guys.

“It’s a passing game. Any time you get speed and cover ability out there, there’s going to be a premium on that. There’s always going to be a premium on corners, safeties that can cover, and linebackers that can run and cover. Nowadays, the tight ends are just as fast and athletic as the wideouts. So linebackers with speed that can cover will be a premium for us.”

» READ MORE: Andy Reid’s Chiefs still have an Eagles flavor. Would Philly have tasted similar success had he stayed?

It’s only fair to point out the Eagles’ draft investment at linebacker somewhat resembles that of the 49ers and Chiefs but with severely different results. Roseman used two third-round picks for Dean and Davion Taylor and took a late-round flier on Shaun Bradley in 2020. White played well after signing a one-year deal with the Eagles in 2022 and the Eagles developed Edwards, an undrafted free agent in 2019, into a player worth a three-year, $19.5 million contract with the Chicago Bears last offseason.

Still, the Eagles went into this season with just three off-ball linebackers on the active roster and Dean poised to lead the position group. Taylor, 25, spent part of the season on the Arizona Cardinals’ practice squad after getting waived by the Eagles in the early days of training camp.

In terms of positional spending, the Eagles have consistently been in the bottom five at the position over the last several years. They ranked 29th in money spent on linebacker this season with a cast of midseason additions filling in once Dean went down.

Spending big isn’t essential at the position — the Chiefs only spent $4 million more on their linebacker group than the Eagles last season with Nick Bolton and 2020 second-round pick Willie Gay still on their rookie contracts. By comparison, the 49ers took Warner in the second round of the 2018 NFL draft and got Greenlaw in the fifth round the next year. They signed Warner to a five-year, $95 million extension in 2021.

As a result, according to overthecap.com, the 49ers will spend the most at the linebacker position next season. Despite that level of investment, the 49ers and Chiefs have stout defensive lines with star pass rushers and quality starters in the secondary as well.

Flajole and Holland said it doesn’t take early-round picks to round out a strong linebacking corps.

Flajole, especially, would know. Aside from Taylor, 2016 seventh-round pick Joe Walker was the only off-ball linebacker selected by the team during Flajole’s Eagles tenure.

Despite all the fruitless scouting reports, the 69-year-old coach didn’t take umbrage while circling the outskirts of Monday night’s media circus at Allegiant Stadium. After all, his first Super Bowl ring came with the Eagles with Nigel Bradham, Jordan Hicks, and Mychal Kendricks manning the middle behind a dominant defensive line.

“I can’t fault how we structured our roster in Philadelphia,” Flajole said. “I think Howie did a good job; in his mind, he wanted to spend resources on the front. The longer you’re in the game, you realize that’s really where it’s won. It’s won with the offensive and defensive line. ... Would I have liked to have some first-rounders? Sure, but the guys that we had were all-in and they played hard. That’s all you can ask for.”